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Miller Trust Guide
GA · Guide

How to Set Up a Qualified Income Trust in Georgia: Step by Step

To set up a Miller Trust in Georgia, you complete the official DCH Qualified Income Trust template, name a trustee who is not the applicant, open a dedicated trust bank account, and deposit the applicant's income into it in the same calendar month you want coverage to begin. The trust diverts income above Georgia's $2,982/month long-term-care Medicaid cap (CMS January 2026 figures) so the applicant qualifies. For the core setup this is a paperwork-and-banking task most families handle themselves; for complex estates, consult a Georgia-licensed elder-law attorney. This guide is informational only and is not legal advice — we explain how to use DCH's own published form; we do not draft it.

What usually happens

You find the free DCH form, and it looks simple. Then an elder-law attorney quotes $1,000–$2,500 to handle it. So you fill it in yourself, get it signed, and take it to the bank, where the branch has never opened one of these and says no.

Meanwhile the month is running out. In Georgia, coverage can't start before the month the trust is funded, so a month that slips is another month of private-pay nursing care at $8,821–$9,429.

This applies when the person who needs care has gross monthly income over Georgia's income cap of $2,982, whether you're their child, their spouse, or a professional helping them.

Free: the questions to ask a Georgia bank before your first visit

7 questions for a five-minute phone call, so you find out whether a branch knows how to open this account before you make the drive. Emailed now, then 4 short follow-ups over the next 10 days — then we stop.

Email only — we never ask for income, age, or family details, and never sell your address.

Setting up a Miller Trust in Georgia is an operational task, not a legal one, as long as you use Georgia Department of Community Health's own published template and do not deviate from it. Here is the full sequence, with the DCH fact behind each step.

  1. Confirm the applicant's income is over the Georgia cap

    A Qualified Income Trust only helps when monthly countable income exceeds Georgia's long-term-care Medicaid limit — $2,982/month single, $5,964/month for a couple where both apply (CMS January 2026 figures). If income is under the cap, a Miller Trust usually is not needed.

  2. Download the official DCH QIT template

    Get the model Qualified Income Trust instrument directly from Georgia Department of Community Health on its .gov site. Georgia publishes an approved Qualified Income Trust template — Form 948 (Revised 08/2024), the irrevocable Medically Needy/Qualified Income Trust agreement that names the Georgia Department of Community Health as residuary beneficiary. We never draft or host the trust text — you use the state's own published form.

  3. Fill in the fields the template asks for

    Complete the data fields the DCH form requests — the applicant's name, date of birth, Social Security number, and each income source (Social Security, pension, and so on) — following the instructions printed on the template.

  4. Name a trustee who is not the applicant

    Per Section 2407, the applicant/recipient may NOT serve as his or her own trustee.

  5. Open the dedicated trust bank account

    Open a dedicated bank account titled to the trust. A Georgia QIT is set up with the beneficiary's Social Security number — no EIN is required. Branches commonly hesitate, so know what to say before you go.

  6. Fund the trust in the same calendar month

    Deposit enough of the applicant's income into the trust account to bring remaining countable income below $2,982 — in the same calendar month you want coverage to start. DCH does not back-date, so the month you fund is the earliest month eligibility can begin.

  7. Distribute monthly and keep records

    Each month the trustee pays out only the allowed items (personal-needs allowance, any spousal allowance, medical costs and cost-share) and keeps the named income sources flowing into the account. Staying inside DCH's rules each month is what keeps benefits from being pulled.

The two steps families get stuck on are opening the bank account in Georgia and funding the trust before the calendar month closes — see how long setting up a Georgia Miller Trust takes for the timing rules.

Get the official DCH template

Download the model Qualified Income Trust instrument directly from Georgia Department of Community Health: DCH Qualified Income Trust template . Georgia publishes an approved Qualified Income Trust template — Form 948 (Revised 08/2024), the irrevocable Medically Needy/Qualified Income Trust agreement that names the Georgia Department of Community Health as residuary beneficiary. It is the DCH-approved template, published in the DFCS Medicaid Policy Manual (Section 2407) and handed to applicants by the county DFCS office. Georgia's own policy states it is not necessary to hire a lawyer: the caseworker provides a fill-in-the-blank template. A QIT that is identical to Form 948 is approved with the Form 936 certification; a QIT that deviates from the template must be reviewed and approved by the DCH Trust Unit (via Form 947) before the case is approved.

Got the DCH form? The bank comes next.

Filling in the form usually takes under an hour. Opening the trust account is where families lose time, because most branches have never opened one. Free one-pager: the questions to ask before you drive to a branch, emailed now. Then 4 more short emails over the next 10 days — then we stop.

Email only — we never ask for income, age, or family details, and never sell your address.

Want the word-for-word replies for when a branch says no, and a pre-filled Georgia funding worksheet? See the Georgia kit ($97) →

Common questions

What do you need before you start setting up a Georgia Miller Trust?
Proof of the applicant's gross monthly income (a Social Security award letter, pension statements), and confirmation that income is actually over Georgia's $2,982/month cap — a Miller Trust only matters if both are true. Knowing who will serve as trustee ahead of time also speeds up the rest of the process. States differ on whether the applicant can serve as their own trustee, so check what DCH says before you choose.
Is the Georgia Miller Trust process the same as in other states?
The shape is similar everywhere — get the trust document, name a trustee, open a dedicated bank account, fund it, and submit it to Medicaid — but the specifics underneath vary by state: the exact form or requirements, the income cap, whether an EIN is needed, and the agency's own submission process. This guide covers Georgia's specifics.